[3] In 1938, the LMS operated 6,870 miles (11,056 km) of railway (excluding its lines in Northern Ireland), but its profitability was generally disappointing, with a rate of return of only 2.7%.

The LMS was the largest of the Big Four railway companies[4] serving routes in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

In addition to this, the LMS owned 543 miles of canal, 8,950 horses, 17,000 carts, 2,000 motor vehicles, 64 steamboats and 27 docks, and was the owner of 28 hotels.

[7] Exceeding 183 miles (295 km), this was the largest jointly operated network in Great Britain in terms of route mileage,[9] and extended from Peterborough to the East Anglian coast.

[7][10] This network connected Bath and Bournemouth, and wound its way through territory nominally allocated to a third railway company, the Great Western.

The LNER also competed with the LMS for traffic between London, the East Midlands, South Yorkshire and Manchester, with the former Midland main line from St Pancras (LMS) and Great Central Main Line from Marylebone (LNER) both providing express, stopping and local services between these destinations.

The LMS was also the only one of the Big Four companies to operate rail services in Northern Ireland, serving most major settlements in the region.

The early history of the LMS was dominated by infighting between parties representing its constituent parts, many of whom had previously been commercial and territorial rivals.

This rivalry was so severe, that stories of connecting trains at Birmingham New Street from the previous LNWR and MR parts of the system, being deliberately made to miss each other persisted even as late as the early 1950s, long after their demise.

[18] The arrival of the new chief mechanical engineer, William Stanier, who was brought in from the Great Western Railway by Josiah Stamp in 1932,[19] heralded a change.

The London Midland & Scottish Railway Company continued to exist as a legal entity for nearly two years after Nationalisation, being formally wound up on 23 December 1949.

[20] The lines in Great Britain were rationalised through closure in the 1950s to 70s but the main routes survive and some have been developed for 125 mph inter-city services.

This changed in 1932 when a major restructuring was completed,[23] replacing the traditional board of directors with an executive headed by a president, supported by vice-presidents each with responsibility for a specific area.

[23] Thirty five district managers were appointed to oversee sales through the company's goods depots, passenger stations and key dock facilities.

Companies holding large freight accounts with the LMS received reduced price season tickets for nominated employees, while commercial travellers, anglers and conveyors of racing pigeons were all tempted with special offers.

In this area, the artist's design would be reproduced as a photolithographic print on double royal satin paper, filling 45 X 35 inches.

LMS’ open design brief resulted in a collection of posters that reflected the large capacity of destinations and experiences available with the transport organisation.

[30] For the Irish Free State, Wilkinson designed a poster in 1927 encouraging the public to avail of the LMS ferry and connecting boat trains to Ireland.

[31] Paul Henry's 1925 poster depicting the Gaeltacht region of Connemara in County Galway proved most commercially popular, with 1,500 sales.

[32] Charter and excursion trains were a significant source of revenue and the LMS became a specialist in the movement of large numbers of people, with locomotives and rolling stock often kept in operation just to service such seasonal traffic.

In one year, the LMS ran 43 special trains to take spectators to the Grand National at Aintree,[21] and a further 55 for the Cup Final at Wembley.

[33] Besides these mass-market events, the company also ran regular tourist excursions to a variety of destinations, such as Oban in the Scottish highlands,[34] Keswick in the English Lake District,[33] and even the First World War battlefields in Belgium, by way of the Tilbury to Dunkerque ferry service and the Belgian railways.

Services were accelerated, and better quality rolling stock was introduced and from 24 September 1928 sleeping cars were provided for third class ticket holders for the first time.

A number of premium services were offered, culminating in 1937 with the launch of the Coronation Scot,[2] which featured streamlined locomotives hauling a nine coach train of specially constructed stock between London Euston and Glasgow Central in six and a half hours.

[43] The LMS inherited a wide variety of passenger rolling stock from its constituent companies, and appointed Robert Whyte Reid, an ex-Midland Railway man, as the head of its Carriage department.

The technique was applied to any item which could be manufactured in large numbers (as there were significant costs in producing the initial jigs) such as doors, ventilators, windows and seats.

[50] Finally the route between Lancaster and Heysham via Morecambe had been electrified by the Midland Railway using a 6600 V AC overhead system, as early as 1908.

Construction of the carriages was carried out for the LMS by external companies, largely to provide work for them during a difficult economic period,[52] but within a couple of years the company returned to more conventional construction methods, as it could no longer justify using external contractors due to efficiency improvements within its own workshops, which were set up to produce carriages of more traditional configuration.

These ranged in size from major ports at Barrow-in-Furness and Grangemouth through ferry harbours such as Holyhead, Heysham, Stranraer and Fleetwood to much smaller facilities including piers on the Thames and Clyde.

[78] In 1933, along with the other three main line railways, the LMS purchased the Hay's Wharf Cartage Company Ltd., the owners of Pickfords, and Carter Paterson.